A method of this type is used in particular in the automotive field in the manufacture of wheel bearings.
In the past, it has been found that a wheel bearing, but also other rolling bearings with a rolling rivet collar, can advantageously be connected to the driving element of the drive train via an end-side toothing arrangement in order to save installation space or to avoid problems of fitting a radial toothing arrangement.
A method for reshaping an end piece of a wheel hub is known from US 20010046339 A1, the end piece being reshaped into a rolling rivet collar. While the rolling rivet collar is shaped by what is known as a rivet header, unnecessary widening of the inner ring is prevented in that the inner ring is radially supported from the outside inwards by a support.
The end piece of a wheel hub may be axially and radially deformed by means of the rivet heading method. This involves the formation of teeth which are oriented in the axial direction and form a toothing arrangement circle around the axis of rotation. A method of this type and also a corresponding wheel bearing with a rolling rivet collar having teeth on the end side emerge from WO 2006105748 A1.
The tooth depth of the end-side toothing arrangement is a crucial variable in the axial transmission of high torques. The greater the tooth depth is, the greater the maximum torque to be transmitted is. However, the limits of the rivet heading method become apparent when a large number of thin teeth having a large tooth depth have to be produced. On account of the wobbling motion of the rivet header, although a tooth well can be actively shaped, the tip of the tooth can be shaped only with difficulty, as the direction of material flow is opposed to the action of force and the rolling rivet collar to be shaped opposes enlargement of its surface area.
Furthermore, it has in practice been found that the rivet heading method often leads to an unevenly shaped end-side toothing arrangement in which the engagement with the mating toothing arrangement does not always have a sufficiently precise fit for uniform torque transmission.